Radical potential realised through cohesive teaming
This innovative multinational oil and gas corporation was taking a bold new approach to the development of a new petrochemical plant. The radical potential of their new construction methodologies was widely understood, but it was also known that success would rely on unprecedented levels of collaboration, sharing and teamwork between clients and contractors across the supply chain. This was the crux of the Sheppard Moscow commission.
The plant was timed to come on-stream within a targeted window of market opportunity, in a region characterised by very high labour costs and stringent environmental, and health & safety, regulation.
Focus
With Sheppard Moscow’s coaching support for their leaders and their teams, the engineering and construction partners, together with their client, were pioneering a new approach to organisational effectiveness (OE) in large scale construction. We were working with three distinct teams with cultural nuances unique to each of them so it was important to focus on co-creating a new way of working together.
Action
There were four guiding principles of the programme:
In practice, this meant we worked to: structure the enterprise as one team at every level, co-location where possible (and virtual co-location where not possible); pay careful attention to getting teams ready for collaboration with other teams, and for working as a ‘team of teams’; take a particular focus on meeting protocols and behaviours in a multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary environment; and always ‘together going to the source’, always staying close to supplier realities, site realities, and the site workforce.
Impact
On the ground, the impact was immediately felt. Despite the work taking place during the Covid-19 crisis the engineering, procurement and construction work went ahead safely, on time and on budget.
This work confirmed what Sheppard Moscow’s years of experience in helping largescale construction projects – from railways to refineries – has shown repeatedly: that aligned human systems are the key underpinning of success in complex technological ventures.
The team included Johnny Kelleher, Ally Salisbury, Roby Blass, and Jennifer Rees.
